A total of 1,348 patients with migraine responded to surveys to determine whether they had been mistreated earlier in life.

In a report by the American Headache Society's Women's Issues Section Research Consortium, the researchers revealed that migraine patients had typically suffered childhood abuse more frequently than average.

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Also, sufferers of migraine headaches who reported childhood abuse tended to have a higher number of other pain conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM) and arthritis.

People who were maltreated in childhood, especially those who had been neglected or emotionally or physically abused, showed a significantly increased risk of chronic migraines years later.

The results of this and other studies suggest that although abuse early in life is associated with depression, this alone cannot account for the greater frequency of pain disorders later in life.

Dr Tietjen pointed out that migraines often precede other pain disorders in these cases and suggested pre-emptive strategies such as cognitive behavioural therapy to stop the problem before it begins.

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